If you would like to make a quilt like this, check out the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along, here.
Ta da! Here's the Sparkle Punch quilt, all finished.
I'm really happy with the wintry color scheme. I'm not usually a big purple fan, but I love it here.
I also got to use 3 of my favorite things: Echino, Essex cotton/linen, and faux bois!
This post is part of the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along. If you have questions that aren't answered in this post, please check out the others, which are linked on the main page, here.
Read about Mo’s Sparkle Punch quilt here.
At this point, you should have a finished quilt top and quilt back. Use these pieces to sandwich, quilt, and bind your quilt using your favorite method.
The rest of this post will tell you a little more about how I finished mine. I'm going to describe the steps in pretty basic terms. If you need more specific instructions for quilt finishing, I'll refer you to my book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.
Step 1: Make the Quilt Sandwich
I prefer to roll up my quilt top and batting before unrolling it onto a quilt back that has been stretched on the floor. In general, I find that this makes it easier to ensure a completely flat quilt sandwich. (See Pages 32 and 33 of The Practical Guide to Patchwork.)
Using this method is doubly helpful with a quilt back like this one. By rolling up the top and batting from both sides (so the 2 halves of the roll meet in the middle) it was easy for me to place the roll right in the center of my quilt back, lining up the seams on the quilt top with the seams on the quilt back before unrolling the top and batting and pin basting.
Step 2: Quilt as Desired
I machine quilted using a free-motion meandering pattern of zigzags/lightning bolts to mimic the points of the stars. (It's the same way I quilted Mo's quilt, but I really liked the pattern for this piecing design, so I stuck with it for my quilt too.)
Here's an illustration of my quilting design. It's actually very similar to a simple curved meandering stitch, but with points instead of curves.
(See Pages 37 - 39 of The Practical Guide to Patchwork.)
Tip: If you're ever unsure about a new free-motion quilting design, practice drawing it on a piece of printer paper, using a marker and filling in all of the space. Doing this will get you thinking about "where to go next" with the design before you move on to practicing on your machine.
Step 3: Make and Sew the Binding
I made straight-grain binding using 7 strips 2-1/2" x width of fabric. (See Pages 40 - 44 of The Practical Guide to Patchwork.)
Step 4: Share a Photo of Your Finished Quilt!
Thank you all so much for participating in the quilt-along. Please consider sharing a photo of your project in my Flickr Group.
This post is part of the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along. If you have questions that aren't answered in this post, please check out the others, which are linked on the main page, here.
Read about Mo’s Sparkle Punch quilt here.
Gather Your Materials
To make the quilt back, you'll need 4 different pieces of solid fabric, each 1-1/4 yards. Each of these pieces will be used to make one quadrant of the quilt back.
Each quadrant will also include a star similar to the ones we made for the front of the quilt. For each star, you'll need a set of 5 squares, each 3-1/2" x 3-1/2". The stars will appear to be floating on a solid fabric background, so I recommend picking star fabrics that contrast with the solid fabric with which they'll be paired.
(If you're keeping score at home, you may have noticed that I subbed out the Kona Stone I had originally planned to use for Kona Thistle.)
Cut the Solid Fabrics (follow these instructions for each of the 4 solid fabrics)
1. Cut 1 strip 31-1/2" x width of fabric and trim to 31-1/2" x 34-1/2".
2. Cut 1 strip 9-1/2" x width of fabric and trim to 9-1/2" x 25-1/2".
3. From remaining fabric, cut 8 squares 3-1/2" x 3-1/2".
Note: All seams are sewn with a 1/4" seam allowance and pressed open.
Make the Stars
Follow the instructions from two weeks ago to make 4 sets of Whole Star components. Make one set for each quadrant of the quilt back, using 4 of the 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" solid fabric squares in place of the negative space fabric that you used on the quilt top.
The stars on the quilt back aren't going to be nestled together. Instead sew the components you just made and the 4 remaining solid fabric squares together like a conventional star block (in a nine-patch formation with the solid squares in the four corners).
Repeat this process to make 4 star blocks, each with a different solid background.
Make the Quilt Back
Arrange the 4 star blocks in 2 rows of 2, as you would like them to be arranged on the quilt back.
From here, we'll sew the rest of the solid fabric onto each star, creating a quadrant of the quilt back.
(Note that the position of the stars in the bottom row in the photo above is different than my finished quilt back. I sewed my pieces together in the wrong order, but decided that I liked it better. It was, as Bob Ross would have said, a "happy accident.")
Sew the 9-1/2" x 25-1/2" strip of matching solid fabric to the left side of the star block in the upper left of your arrangement. Sew the 31-1/2" x 34-1/2" piece of solid fabric to the top, matching 34-1/2" sides.
This is the Upper Left quadrant of your quilt back, but the star should be in the lower right corner.
Sew the 9-1/2" x 25-1/2" strip of matching solid fabric to the right side of the star block in the upper right of your arrangement. Sew the 31-1/2" x 34-1/2" piece of solid fabric to the top, matching 34-1/2" sides.
This is the Upper Right quadrant of your quilt back, but the star should be in the lower left corner.
Sew the Upper Left and Upper Right quadrants together, matching star blocks along the 40-1/2" sides.
This is the Upper Half of your quilt back. The stars should be next to each other at the bottom center.
Sew the 9-1/2" x 25-1/2" strip of matching solid fabric to the left side of the star block in the lower left of your arrangement. Sew the 31-1/2" x 34-1/2" piece of solid fabric to the bottom, matching 34-1/2" sides.
This is the Lower Left quadrant of your quilt back, but the star should be in the upper right corner.
Sew the 9-1/2" x 25-1/2" strip of matching solid fabric to the right side of the star block in the lower right of your arrangement. Sew the 31-1/2" x 34-1/2" piece of solid fabric to the bottom, matching 34-1/2" sides.
This is the Lower Right quadrant of your quilt back, but the star should be in the upper left corner.
Sew the Lower Left and Lower Right quadrants together, matching star blocks along the 40-1/2" sides.
This is the Lower Half of your quilt back. The stars should be next to each other at the top center.
Sew the Upper and Lower halves together, matching star blocks at the center.
Your finished quilt back should measure approximately 68" x 80".
***
The next quilt-along post, Finishing the Quilt, will be on February 1.
Find the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along main page here.
Read about Mo’s Sparkle Punch quilt here.
Now that you have all of your star components made, it's time to sew them together to make the quilt top!
Start by clearing a design wall or clean floor area at least 70" x 84".
Before we start, I just want to give a quick reminder that we're still working with 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" star components (center squares and points units). Making the quilt top will result in their being sewn together, but they should not be sewn together yet.
Download Sparkle Punch Quilt Top Layout
Use the Quilt Top Layout as a guide to arrange your sets of star components as you would like them to look in your finished quilt top, creating 24 rows of 20 components each.
The sets of components for the three-quarter, half, and quarter stars will end up around the edges of the quilt top, making the whole thing rectangular.
When I was arranging my block components, I found it helpful to start near the center and work my way out to the sides until my composition was 20 components wide x 24 components high.
If you want to create more negative space in your composition (i.e. not fill it in entirely with stars) you can replace as many as you want of the star components with 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" squares of your negative space fabric. Just keep in mind that, if you want your quilt to finish at 60" x 72", you'll need to create a grid with 24 rows of 20 squares each.
Once you're happy with the layout, pull aside the 30 star components (5 wide x 6 high) in the lower right corner, making sure not to disrupt their arrangement.
Note: All seams are sewn with a quarter inch seam allowance and pressed open.
Sew the 5 components in each row together, and then sew the 6 rows together to make a block. This is Block 4D.
Repeat this process with the remaining star components, creating a total of 16 blocks, and making sure not to lose track of each block's placement in the overall composition. You may find it helpful to label the blocks 1A, 1B, 1C, and so on, as shown above.
Sew Block 1A to Block 1B to create a row. Sew Block 2A to Block 2B to create a second row and sew this row to the bottom of the first to create the Upper-Left Quadrant of the quilt top.
Sew Block 1C to Block 1D to create a row. Sew Block 2C to Block 2D to create a second row and sew this row to the bottom of the first to create the Upper-Right Quadrant of the quilt top.
Sew Block 3A to Block 3B to create a row. Sew Block 4A to Block 4B to create a second row and sew this row to the bottom of the first to create the Lower-Left Quadrant of the quilt top.
Sew Block 3C to Block 3D to create a row. Sew Block 4C to Block 4D to create a second row and sew this row to the bottom of the first to create the Lower-Right Quadrant of the quilt top.
Sew the Upper-Left Quadrant and the Upper-Right Quadrant together to make the Upper Half of the quilt top.
Sew the Lower-Left Quadrant and the Lower-Right Quadrant together to make the Lower Half of the quilt top.
Sew the Upper Half and the Lower Half together to finish the quilt top.
And that's it! Your quilt top if finished.
***
The next quilt-along post, Making the Quilt Back, will be on January 25.
Find the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along main page here.
Read about Mo’s Sparkle Punch quilt here.
Today's post is about how to make the stars. I say make the stars instead of make the blocks because the way this quilt top comes together is a little different than other star quilts you might have seen.
Conventional star blocks are usually made with 9 components, like the block shown above. In a conventional star quilt, blocks would be finished and then sewn into a quilt top.
For this quilt, we're eliminating the four corner units so the stars can be nestled together. This creates a plus-sign shape that could be difficult to sew together in the conventional way. Instead, we're going to make sets of block components and wait until we're planning the quilt top layout to sew them together.
Cut Your Negative Space Fabric
Last week's post detailed how many 3-1/2" squares are needed to make the stars. You'll also need to cut squares from your 3-1/2 yards of negative space fabric. (This will be the background behind the stars.)
To do this, cut the negative space fabric into 35 strips 3-1/2" by width of fabric. Subcut the strips into 384 squares 3-1/2" x 3-1/2".
Note: If you're planning an asymmetrical composition with more negative space (i.e. not entirely filled in with stars) you'll need more squares cut from your negative space fabric. However you won't necessarily know exactly how many until we get to the Making the Quilt Top stage next week.
Make the Stars
1. Each star will be made from 5 star fabric squares and 4 squares of your negative space fabric. Reserve 1 of the star fabric squares for the center of the star and cut the other 4 in half diagonally, creating 8 right triangles. These triangles will become the points of the star.
2. Place 1 of the triangles, face down, over the lower right corner of 1 of the negative space squares, tilting it at a slightly wonky angle. Sew in place, keeping your seam within 1/4" of the edge of the triangle.
3. Use a ruler and rotary cutter to trim away the excess negative space fabric, creating a 1/4" seam allowance.
4. Press the seam open, creating a wonky star point where the negative space fabric used to be.
5. Repeat the same process to sew a second triangle to the lower left corner of the same square of negative space fabric.
6. Trim away the excess fabric, creating a 1/4" seam allowance and press the seam open.
7. Square up the finished points unit to 3-1/2" x 3-1/2".
8. Repeat Steps 2 - 7 to make 3 more points units (for a total of 4). Stack the finished points units together with their matching center square.
Important Note: The triangles need to be placed so that, after being sewn down and pressed, they cover the entire area that was formerly occupied by the negative space fabric. This will ensure that your finished block components measure a perfect 3-1/2" x 3-1/2", which is essential to having your quilt top come together smoothly.
Using larger triangles (or other scraps) can make this step easier, but it can also produce a tremendous amount of waste, which is why I recommend using the triangles cut from 3-1/2" squares. With a little practice, it won't be so difficult to make those points work!
I mention this whenever I post about wonky piecing, but I'll say it again here: A little wonkiness goes a long way. The crazier your angles, the more trouble you're likely to have covering the corners of your block components. If you've never done piecing like this before, it may help to practice on some scraps before moving on to your "good" fabric.
Repeat these steps to make the following sets of star components for the front of the quilt:
80 Whole Stars: Follow directions, as written.
14 Three-Quarter Stars: Follow directions, cutting only 3 star fabric squares in half (to make 6 triangles) and making 3 points units.
2 Half Stars: Follow directions, cutting only 2 star fabric squares in half (to make 4 triangles) and making 2 points units.
18 Quarter Stars: Follow directions, cutting the star fabric square in half (to make 2 triangles) and making 1 points unit.
Note: If you're planning to make an asymmetrical composition with lots of negative space, there isn't a specific number of stars that you need to make. Just make however many you want to have in your composition. You can always add more later if you find you need them.
Helpful Tools
A 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" ruler can make it easy to square up the individual block components.
If you want to get really fancy, use a rotating cutting mat to square up sets of block components without moving them.
***
The next quilt-along post, Making the Quilt Top, will be on January 19.
Find the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along main page here.
Read about Mo’s Sparkle Punch quilt here.
Today’s post is all about the materials you’ll need to make your very own Sparkle Punch Quilt.
These fabric requirements are for a 60” x 72” quilt (generous lap quilt size) but don’t hesitate to make your own calculations/revisions to make the quilt in a different size.
This quilt design, with nestled stars that appear to continue off the quilt top, uses both whole and partial stars.
Clockwise from top-left: whole star, three-quarter star, quarter star, half star
All of the stars are made with sets of 3½” x 3½” squares. For the stars (just the stars - not the negative space behind them) you will need:
If you prefer, you can make your composition include fewer stars, arranged in an asymmetrical arrangement kind of like this. If you do that, you’ll end up needing fewer sets of squares to make stars and more fabric for your negative space. (I’ll talk more about this kind of composition in the Making The Quit Top post.)
The color scheme for my quilt was inspired by this gorgeous Echino print so, for my stars, I raided my scraps to select monochromatic print and solid fabrics in pinks, purples, sea greens, grays, browns, beiges, and black. I also fussy-cut some squares from the Echino print.
You can use as many or few different fabrics for your stars as you want, but here are a couple of suggestions:
Most of my sets of squares are cut from the same fabric, but I did include a few sets with 4 identical squares for the points and 1 fussy-cut square for the center.
Quilt back from Mo’s Sparkle Punch Quilt
In addition to the star fabrics, you’ll need:
Note: These requirements contemplate fabric at least 42” wide.
I’m using Yarn-Dyed Essex Cotton-Linen in Flax for my negative space. For my quilt back, I’m using Kona solids in Stone, Jade Green, Pomegranate, and Charcoal. Because I just can’t get enough faux bois, I’m using a brown woodgrain print from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary 2 collection for the binding.
What colors/fabrics are you using for your Sparkle Punch quilt?
***
The next quilt-along post, Making the Stars, will be on January 11.
There seemed to be a lot of interest in more specific instructions for making a quilt like the one I made Mo, so I'm going to start the year with a quilt-along!
Like any of my quilt-alongs, this is going to be a series of posts without a specific timeline for completion. My goal is simply to provide instructions that you can follow on your own time.
My instructions for making a 60" x 72" quilt will be posted as follows:
January 4: What You'll Need
January 11: Making the Stars
January 19: Making the Quilt Top
January 25: Making the Quilt Back
February 1: Finishing the Quilt
More photos of my finished quilt can be found here.
I'm not going to start a separate Flickr Pool for this quilt-along but, as always, I welcome photos of your work in my regular Flickr Pool.
Looking forward to quilting with you!
